How are you coping with this cold snap?

First off, we have the heating on as we need it on. I budget for it by putting money in a separate bank account all year round. We keep doors closed and wear warm layers. I get cold easily as I can’t move about to warm myself up.

I've come to bed with the electric blanket on. It's very cold here

House toasty thanks to underfloor heating.

Did an hours route march around the village it was cold, dry and exhilarating.

I have a heated throw. My DH doesn't feel the cold as much as I so I use it when we are watching tv.

Heating on except at night when the electric blanket goes on. But we live in an old cold house and we still sit with blankets and hot water bottles.

I like to grab a blanket whenever I sit down too. Such a cosy feeling when you can see the garden silvered in frost. I don't like a warm bedroom though, so have taken to wearing a hoody when sat reading in bed, may need fingerless gloves tonight!

When I bought this place from the Housing Association I had an extra radiator installed in the living room which had always been insufficiently heated. I keep the heating bill manageable by wearing multiple layers and directing the heating to the living room during the day. The rest of the house is unheated during the day (except if I am having a bath when I put the bathroom radiator on). If it is sub zero and especially if I am poorly like I am now, I put the bedroom radiator on an hour before I go to bed and fix the timer to give heat a couple of times during the early hours to stop it dropping too low in the bedroom.

I have pretty good windows with good curtains and make them better by sticking bubble wrap inside the glass during the colder months. I am always careful with power useage so can "splash out" when necessary in the winter without worrying. Mind you, the unheated North facing kitchen and toilet can be a nasty shock to the system when I leave my warm living room nest!

Certainly a very cold snap heating has been running all day so house kept warm. Had to go out this morning my car will usually clear ice pretty quickly if I leave it running a while but extra effort to clear snow of first.
We have a beautiful new porcelain patio which is very smooth and can be a mini ice rink so having to be careful on that, told DH to keep off it I am much more agile than him

I hated the fact that when I moved I could only have electric, but wherever I looked houses or flats for older people they seem to think we were incapable of sorting things out for ourselves despite having lived longer than most of them already!

So stuck with electric - which now has gone up in price even more. I chose to have individual electric radiators rather than central heating. This has allowed me to set them up individually and so I save as much money as I can by setting them up for each room I use. My bedroom I only have on for an hour before I usually go to bed, the hall one on much more as that is where the outside door is and the colder area etc. My bathroom radiator I close the door and put it on before I go for a shower to warm the room up. So keep it down as much as possible, but have a draught excluder against the outside door, keep curtains shut in the bedroom for most of the time at the moment, the lounge curtains only open once the day has warmed up. I wear my polar long johns under my trousers and my very old but still warm cashmere jumpers and put a fleece blanket round my legs when sitting around.

Due to my problems with back and legs I cant walk anywhere near as much as I used to be able to so feel the cold a lot more. I have a hefty polar jacket with a hood that I use when out on the yellow peril, but even with good warm trousers and long johns I do tend to feel the cold in my legs and feet as I am sat on the buggy, and cant walk quickly enough these days to get warm.

So bit of a beggar these days, and I try to do two or three things on one trip, go to a meeting and get bread and vegetables on the way back, and then stay in and not have to g o out for a couple of days. So any time we get a reasonable day at this time of year, I leave any nonessential tasks and get out while I can, and make the most of it. Then choose to do jobs that keep me warm , so yesterday got quite a lot of ironing done , so killing two birds with one stone. Clean and ironed things to wear and got quite warm doing the ironing!

Thick heavy curtains pulled asap in the evening - act as an extra layer of insulation. The house is well insulated. We keep the thermostat at 21c. The thermostat is in the hall The sitting room also has a flame effect electric fire which is also
at 21c, so if for some reason the temperature drops it automatically comes on. (Rarely). I have a heated blanket at night in bed, which I share with our little cat.

The house is warm, draft free and very cosy.

Ours is a 1930s house, so no cavity wall insulation. The heating is on from when I get up (6.30 today) to bedtime (11ish), at 19-20 degrees. We're in credit with the gas and electricity, at the moment.

House it well insulated but the heating is on till 9pm set at 19 of fat night till 7am. I don’t to spend my days feeling cold anymore so it’s on during the day while it’s needed. I refuse to worry about the bill. I have heated windscreens in the car which works fast and heated seats and steering wheel. I am careful on the side roads as they aren’t gritted.
I had to melt the birdbath this morning so the birds could get a drink with their food. I wear long sleeve thermal socks and thick socks but I still go out for a walk every day so I think I’m doing ok.
Stay safe everyone.

I'm being more generous with the CH lately as it's so cold and my body hates it.

Living in a project house, with the downstairs still with 4 radiators not yet connected plus a huge yawning open chimney. The central heating contractor is due next week to fix theradiators and the chimney contractor is booked to install the wood burning stove and block the chimney - but cannot come until the end of the month.

We have the heating on 24/7 plus a fan heater on all day downstairs. We will charge December and January's energy bill to the house renovation budget, as a one off expense, rather than try to pay it for income.

We have to keep the house warm as DH has heart problems and needs to keep warm. I would like to knock it off the CH contractor's bill. The system should have been fully installed several months ago, but he takes on too much work and overuns on time on every project because he is trying to do too much at once. However, he is a good installer and what is working is doing very well in this cold weather and our bedroom stays warm. and the water is hot.

My flat is quite cosy and warm. Up to the last few days the lowest that it fell to was around 17 degrees. Note it is now 14 degrees. This is during the night, heating goes off at 9.45 pm. Have two radiators in Living Room. Last winter I never turned on my bedroom rad at all, but it is on now.

I have heavy, lined drapes for all my large windows, and I close these as it starts to get dark.

I hate a heated bedroom for sleeping in. No electric blanket for me - that would definitely prevent me sleeping. Have a flat sheet, 4.5 tog duvet on bed most of winter. In these very cold weather also have a thin throw on top of that. Must say that even in my long-sleeved winter nightie it felt chilly when I did my 3 am loo visit, but back in bed I was cosy.

I have a rather big money excess with my utility company account, so am not worried about having heating on properly for a few days - or even weeks now. They even cut my DD amount a few weeks ago, I thought too low and raised it. Happier having that excess there - for times like this.

My daughter who lives close by always insists that it is not a matter of me feeling warm with a throw over me when sitting around - but that the air I am breathing in should not be much lower than 18 degrees. (I am in my mid-80's with several health issues).

Usually heating is on from 7.30 am (I get up before 8.00 am), until 9.30 am then not back on until 4.30 pm. But, thanks to the wonderful 'hive' system, I can easily 'boost' it on from my 'phone.

I have thermal tops and leggings and socks that I wear under my winter trousers and jumper, and a wonderful winter coat which keeps me cosy when I am out. As I use a mobility scooter, I really need to wrap up warm as - with that - I am just sitting down so do feel the cold.

I do prefer this bright cold weather to the milder wet weather we have been having. Hopefully, it will also help to kill off some of the bugs around.

We have been warned not to leave our houses tomorrow because it will be too hot. First time in many years. Expected to be 42C + after a long and cold Winter ( for us ) It is pretty nasty when it is that hot and it brings back bad memories for me because of bushfires and my daughter and her family losing everything except the clothes they were wearing. It was so awful and so sad, I never understood the long term ramifications for mental health really until then.

I love the freezing, the more freezinger the better!

I've got a selection of Tube hats from Brand It Ltd, Essex, which help to keep my forehead warm, various wooley hats, 2 blanket scarves, and various other scarves, 2 pairs of hand warmers that go just about up to my elbows and a pair of ''magic'' fingerless gloves that look child-size but stretch to adult size!

At the moment, I'm wearing a fluorescent yellow Tube hat, a Minion yellow blanket scarf, a white jacket, and black leggings!

I'm currently having a Full English brekkie at my favourite Crown & Cushion, in the little 2-table restaurant at the back, but when I get home, I'll leave off the heaters and just continue to wear what I am now!

The kitchen can be quite cold, bi-fold doors with a lot of glass, but very bright, the sun almost dazzles, it's my afternoon room. Our front room has a wood burning stove, which is redundant. We used it briefly when we first moved in but it brought on my husband's asthma. We're probably alone in not liking them anyway, most people seem to love them. There's a radiator under the bay window which throws out quite a bit of heat. I have an array of long winter cardigans which I generally wear in the house when it's cold and I bought some lovely warm thermal socks from M&S which I really appreciate. The heating is set on 19 usually. There are several throws draped over the arms of sofas so if the weather goes the full Siberian massively sub zero they'll be used, but generally they're superfluous.

We're having a spell of bright sunny, but cold days here in the south east, lovely to look at but can be hazardous. I don't like driving when there's a low winter sun or icy roads, so I don't, I get my other half to drop me off, which is bad I know too reliant on another. If I were on my own though, in such conditions, I'd rely on public transport, or get a taxi. I'm far more cautious than I used to be.

Upstairs is warmer given the heat rises. At night my husband feels the cold more than me so I bought a weighted blanket, which he really appreciates, I don't always, it can make me too hot, so we arrange it so my half is not over me. They are supposed to make people sleep better, I wish! nothing much does these days.

How awful nanna8. I would choose our current cold weather over that extreme Australian heat any day.
I hope it’s short lived for you.

I have just put my heating up by a half degree. The thermometer at one end of the room says 22 degrees and the other 21 degrees (it's a big room). I don't see the point of having central heating if you don't use it when the weather is cold.
I am wearing fur lined slippers, pyjamas and a thick dressing gown and it is nice and comfortable for me.
My bills are not as high as last year, still well in credit on my bills.

On the basis that this is precisely that, a cold snap I have no compunction about having the heating on . If it goes on for many weeks, I might reconsider, but temperatures will be on the rise in the next week, or at least normal for January.
Why suffer, or risk colds or flu, discomfort even hypothermia?

Cosy fires, warm soup, lovely layers of clothing. I love winter.

Same as RosiesMaw.Heating on all day at the moment which isn’t usual but if it continues may have to reconsider.

Our heating is set to 24° as I refuse to be cold. It goes off at night though. I have a heated throw on my bed, which I sometimes use it in the lounge while watching my iPad.

We have an inefficient fake gas fire in the lounge. You can only just feel its heat by standing right over it, but it does make the room look cheerful.